As we wrap up our first Mental Health and Pop Culture series with Dr. Eric Bender, we’re going out with a smash. In our final installment for these superheroes, we turn to the Hulk to explore anger, fear, and what happens when we become afraid of our own emotions.
In The Incredible Hulk, David Banner is a quiet scientist with a force inside him he cannot fully control. When his anger spikes, he transforms into the Hulk. As Hulk he has strength driven by raw emotion. Each episode follows him drifting from town to town, trying to do good while fearing that the very power he hoped would help others might instead destroy everything around him.
I love the show, The Incredible Hulk from back in the day. When I was a kid, I was terrified, particularly by the episode where the Hulk is fighting another Hulk. But what I love about it now as a psychiatrist and a therapist is Bruce Banner was experimenting on his emotions and trying to figure out why in a moment when his family got into a car accident, why did he not become super strong the way some people do and get that adrenaline rush, and why couldn’t he rip the car door off and save his family?
This is a man in mourning. He’s really traumatized, and he does these experiments with gamma radiation and exposure to the sun, and as we know, it all goes wrong, and he turns green when he gets really angry and becomes really big. I really loved that he was trying to figure out why couldn’t do something. He is mourning and a lot of people have grief. I think there’s a grieving individual trying to figure out why he couldn’t do something. It reflects what I see in real life that sometimes people keep thinking, why couldn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do that?
It’s a way to integrate into your life that this person is no longer here. These people are no longer here physically. That’s something that often gets in the way of people grieving. It’s a natural thing, but it also helps us not to feel sad. I think we see that illustrated in this character. The other thing that I find really interesting is, anger is one of the emotions that many people I see really struggle with. Whether that’s because they were told they shouldn’t feel angry by teachers or by parents or caregivers or religion, it’s really an emotion people struggle with. I think that’s cool that the Hulk is really angry and people are scared of anger because people are scared of anger. It’s not wrong to have these emotions. It’s what do we do with them?
And interestingly, the Hulk saves a lot of people. People are scared about this big green guy, but he does do some good things. So similarly in life, anger can drive us to do good things. So I think that’s another part of the story that’s very interesting.
How can we look at having open conversations with our emotions without the fear of becoming the Hulk?
I know we’re talking about the Incredible Hulk, but this is when I’ll bring in Harry Potter. One line I love from the Harry Potter books and the movies is when Dumbledore tells Harry in the first book, Harry’s referring to Voldemort and says, “He Who Must Not Be Named.” “Voldemort” is not spoken. Dumbledore says, “Just say his name. He has more power over you that way when you don’t say his name, when you say ‘He Who Must Not Be Named,’ or ‘You Know Who.’ This really does take away the power there. Similarly with our emotions, being able to say, I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m really, really upset. It can take the power away in a sense. You can start to control it, very much like what Bruce Banner was trying to do. You can control your emotions instead of feeling like they control you. You don’t have to be scared of them.
So I think just starting by stating what you feel. Ideally, you could see a therapist or talk to a doctor about it. Even just saying to yourself, “I’m really angry about this,” writing it in a journal, letting it come out in a way that doesn’t feel super scary. It might feel scary at first, but you suddenly realize writing this on a paper doesn’t actually cause somebody harm. I might be angry at somebody else. That anger shouldn’t actually hurt them. What hurts them is what you do with the anger. We’re human beings; we’re gonna be angry; we’re gonna be upset. So I think realizing that is really important.
With all of these characters and with all of the people here listening and watching, I think the important thing is we’re humans. We have emotions. We’re going to have emotions. Being able to talk to a therapist about this, if you can, can be really helpful because you don’t feel as alone with them. I think that’s one thing I see most often is, people feel so alone with their feelings, and when they don’t have to feel that way anymore, they feel better. They can go about being in their lives the way they want to in a much better way. I continue to encourage people to talk to people if you need help.
A huge thank you to Dr. Eric Bender for joining us throughout this first Mental Health and Pop Culture series and for helping us look at mental health through the stories, characters, and worlds we all know and love. We hope this series has sparked conversation, reflection, and maybe even helped you see yourself in a new way. Be sure to check out Dr. Eric Bender’s work here:
YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Please note we’re not diagnosing but using familiar stories to talk about real mental health experiences. There is help available if you need. Check out our list of trusted partners for non-emergent mental health support.
Photo courtesy of social media
